Abstract [en]

PIEp (Product Innovation Engineering programme) is a newly established research school in product development engineering with the aim to increase innovation capabilities in the Swedish industries and to promote entrepreneurial behavior. By following a bottom-up approach PIEp has been able to embrace and foster entrepreneurial behavior. As an outcome the young research school has been able to change preexisting mindsets and to encourage the PIEp PhD students to be more proactive, risk-taking and innovative. This paper presents the chain of events that have happened since the establishment of the PIEp research school. In an action research approach the authors additionally state their own perceptions. Providing rich, descriptive examples and explaining certain cases in detail it is outlined how the transformation of the initial idea has been pursued until today. The insights provided are made public for future research, comparison to other research schools, and to policy makers interested in founding new research schools.